The scam with energy comparison sites

mikemikes

I have been running some price comparisons and the various comparison sites, including this one are stating I can save almost £700/year. This is a COMPLETE LIE.

When I actually crunch the numbers the saving is more like £ 200. A massive difference.

SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be wary of promises of big savings. Do your own comparisons. Its easy. Just get your monthly consumptions and multiply them by the new tariffs.

Unfortunately all the sites seem to use a suspicious method of calculating you current costs, which of course look super expensive when compared to their tariffs!! They tend to assume you are in a contract(even though in most cases, there is no get out fee) and calculate your costs on going up after your contract end time, for the remainder of a 12 month cycle.. What a con!!

I think this is a highly dodgy scam as far as I can see and am amazed they get away with it.
I am very surprised for even this site to not point this out to you.

SO TREAD WITH CARED and good luck..

zagfles

Yes they all seem to do this - it's probably mandated somewhere! You need to check the actual unit rates and standing charge and compare them. Only use comparison sites as a rough guideline.

teddysmum

This has been mentioned on here before. In fact MSE discussed it on his tv programme this evening.


The problem with comparison sites is that they assume you will go onto your supplier's standard rate and this high price is what savings are based on.


There is something else, similar, to trap the unwary or those who find maths difficult :


I read my bill today and noticed that, as the Government has ordered, they indicate their cheapest tariff for you. However, it was obvious to me that there would probably be no saving, let alone the hundreds of pounds worth of savings they claimed, if I moved tariffs now, (because the electricity unit rate and standing charges were higher, making saving impossible and though the gas unit rate dropped by a tiny amount the standing charge was doubled).


I had just reached my conclusion, when the MSE on tv commented on the very same.


It is not actually the suppliers' fault, as they are doing what the Government asked, but they predict your consumption then make calculations based on your present fix until it ends and then on the standard rate for the rest of the year; just like in the case of the comparison sites.


I just hope that people do not just act on this advice or they could leave a good fix early, in favour of a poorer one.


When I last changed just one tariff, as the other was no improvement, I challenged the call centre person's suggestion that I would be better off changing both and she was quite taken aback that the computer was wrong.

Pincher

In the end, the comparison is done using the annual cost. If I know my tariff is supposed to cost £1,000 , for my kWh usage, then I just have to look down the list for a new tariff that costs about £1,000 , and the tariffs above it are cheaper, and the ones below are more expensive.


The Scottish Power November 2016 fix and the December 2016 are identical, so I just select December 2016 fix as my current tariff, which also works.


People are lying all the time. Your bum does look big in those clothes, but you cope with the lie perfectly well.

System

Let's be clear. The savings figure quoted on comparison sites is incorrect only for those customers who have less than 12 months to run on a fixed price tariff. Ofgem mandates that all its approved comparison sites have to use this methodology. MSE CEC gets round this mandate by providing the Ofgem savings calculation and a simpler annual cost versus annual cost.

There is no scam and, whilst I hesitate to say this, an assumption has to be made about what happens at the end of a fixed price contract period as there is no option to remain on an existing fixed price tariff.

It is also true to say that once people start switching then energy customers become website wise and ignore any potential savings other than a simple' this is what I paid for the past 12 months compared to what I might pay for the coming 12 months'. We shouldn't of course forget that part of the inflated savings problem is that consumers fail to use projected annual kWhs as the basis for their consumption calculations.

Biggles

Hengus wrote: »

Let's be clear. The savings figure quoted on comparison sites is incorrect only for those customers who have less than 12 months to run on a fixed price tariff.

That's true, but, of course, all practically every customer doing a price comparison has less than 12 months to run, it's why they're there.

Energyhelpline.com has always provided a link, though a rather clumsy one, which will enable you to check your existing tariff against the competition, and the Cheap Energy Club now has an even better system.

But, beware, they do all seem to show the standard variable tariff after your contract is due to end as the default, as apparently required for some reason by Ofgem.

System

Biggles wrote: »

But, beware, they do all seem to show the standard variable tariff after your contract is due to end as the default, as apparently required for some reason by Ofgem.

It suits the Govt, and its poodle Ofgem, to use the present methodology as they are targeting people who have never switched. If you want a simple 'this is what you are paying now' compared to 'this is what you will pay for the next 12 months' without any attempt to default to the supplier's SV tariff then use:

theenergyshop.com

for your comparisons.

mikemikes

Thanks for all the replies here.
When I say scam, I mean misleading and I strongly believe the system is very misleading. There should be a clear and highlighted explanation and warning on the site, to let people know that the actual savings can be considerably lower then quoted. That being the case, the comparison information is pretty misleading.

For many people, it's quite tricky to locate all the relevant information and rates, especially for the elderly. One obvious solution would be to have an on-line spreadsheet where you manually enter your figures, and it works out what your costs will be. This would be much more reliable and accurate then working on a fictitious presumption.

I would expect this, of all sites to be as clear as possible, but really, it's no better than the rest which is a disappointment.

System

mikemikes wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies here.
When I say scam, I mean misleading and I strongly believe the system is very misleading. There should be a clear and highlighted explanation and warning on the site, to let people know that the actual savings can be considerably lower then quoted. That being the case, the comparison information is pretty misleading.

For many people, it's quite tricky to locate all the relevant information and rates, especially for the elderly. One obvious solution would be to have an on-line spreadsheet where you manually enter your figures, and it works out what your costs will be. This would be much more reliable and accurate then working on a fictitious presumption.

I would expect this, of all sites to be as clear as possible, but really, it's no better than the rest which is a disappointment.

Report your concerns to:

consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk

The more people that bombard Ofgem with concerns, the greater the possibility that it will take notice. Don't be surprised if you get a standard reply.

MSE_Dan_L

mikemikes wrote: »

I would expect this, of all sites to be as clear as possible, but really, it's no better than the rest which is a disappointment.

Hi Mikemikes

I would just like to add that on Cheap Energy Club we don't default to compare based on Ofgem's personal projection, rather allowing you to see the costs of your existing fix against those available on the market.

Full details on the news story below.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/energy/2015/08/test-your-energy-fix-check-if-you-can-save-100s

mikemikes

Thanks, will check it out